By
Niels Lesniewski
| March 21, 2013, 5:54 p.m.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Thursday that the base gun legislation on the Senate floor next month would include background checks and gun-trafficking language as well as school safety provisions.
By
John Gramlich
| March 20, 2013, 3:14 p.m.
Sens. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced legislation Wednesday that would give federal judges leeway to hand down lesser criminal penalties than those called for under mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
By
John Gramlich
| March 19, 2013, 5:42 p.m.
Senior Senate Democrats bluntly acknowledged Tuesday that a proposed federal ban on assault weapons will not become law, bowing to the political calculus that only lesser gun control measures stand a chance of passing Congress, despite three months of emotional national debate since the Connecticut school massacre.
By
Emily Cahn
| March 19, 2013, 3:37 p.m.
It didn’t take long for a hearing on legislative branch funding to get tense Tuesday, with House Democrats blasting Republican leadership for authorizing $3 million in taxpayer money to defend outside legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act while at the same time calling for sweeping cuts to members’ offices, committee budgets and congressional operating agencies such as the Capitol Police.
By
Steven T. Dennis
| March 18, 2013, 6:52 p.m.
Senate Republicans have a thorny dilemma regarding President Barack Obama’s nomination of Thomas E. Perez as Labor secretary, especially now that the GOP apparatus has begun to redouble its efforts to reach out to minorities.
Meredith McGehee
| March 18, 2013, 6:42 p.m.
Not surprisingly, the Office of Congressional Ethics is under attack yet again. The office, which helped bring some accountability and transparency to the House ethics process, has not been popular since its creation. This time the offensive is coming from a group of defense attorneys who represent members of Congress and their staffs against allegations of ethics violations.
By
John Gramlich
| March 18, 2013, 12:48 p.m.
President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Thomas E. Perez, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, as his next Labor secretary, saying he has “spent a career as a consensus builder.”
By
John Gramlich, Lauren Smith
| March 18, 2013, 12:15 p.m.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., announced Monday that he will block President Barack Obama’s nominee for Labor secretary, Thomas E. Perez, until he receives more information about Perez’s enforcement of a federal voting law as the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
By
Emma Dumain
| March 17, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Longtime District of Columbia activists can attest that the battle for expanded rights for the federal city can be a heartbreaking one, ticking off the times when prospects for victories evaporated just as they appeared within reach.
By
Jonathan Strong
| March 15, 2013, 7:27 p.m.
Social conservatives at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference are weathering Ohio Sen. Rob Portman’s decision to support gay marriage, holding firm to their stance on the issue and noting that the front lines of the battle are not on Capitol Hill.
By
Humberto Sanchez
| March 15, 2013, 2:36 p.m.
GOP leaders on the Hill declined to criticize Sen. Rob Portman’s decision to support gay marriage, after years of opposing it on religious grounds.
By
Joanna Anderson, John Gramlich
| March 14, 2013, 6:01 p.m.
All eyes now shift to Harry Reid. With the Senate Judiciary Committee completing its work on a series of gun measures Thursday, the majority leader must determine his strategy for how the full chamber will move forward in response to last year’s Connecticut school shooting.
By
John Gramlich
| March 14, 2013, 5:38 p.m.
Gun control advocates and some congressional Democrats expressed frustration Thursday that the continuing resolution being debated on the Senate floor this week seeks to make several permanent policy changes related to firearms.
Norman Ornstein
| March 13, 2013, 6:47 p.m.
The story of Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster captivated the national media. In part because of its novelty; we have not seen a real, old-fashioned, pull-out-the-cots-and-go-round-the-clock filibuster in decades, save a few faux 24-hour filibusters staged by Majority Leaders Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., that were more dramatization than anything else.
By
Kate Ackley
| March 13, 2013, 11:44 a.m.
The Entertainment Software Association, the video game lobby, has added a new bipartisan duo to its roster: Ali Amirhooshmand and Danielle Rodman are joining the group as directors of federal government affairs.
By
Eliza Newlin Carney
| March 13, 2013, 11:34 a.m.
As President Barack Obama prepares to meet with donors to his advocacy group Organizing for Action, he continues to field criticism over the organization from both watchdogs and Republican operatives.
By
John Gramlich
| March 11, 2013, 6:25 p.m.
If President Barack Obama names Thomas E. Perez as his next secretary of Labor, Senate Republicans will have a lengthy and contentious Washington track record to examine as they decide whether, or how strongly, to object to his nomination.
By
Amanda Becker
| March 11, 2013, 3:01 p.m.
Former Sen. Larry E. Craig, R-Idaho, may face an uphill battle trying to convince a federal judge that he properly used campaign funds to pay for his legal defense after being arrested for soliciting sex in an airport bathroom.
By
Kate Ackley
| March 11, 2013, 2:05 p.m.
The video game lobby on Monday announced a new campaign that will include a series of public service announcements aimed at parents — the industry’s latest response to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., that some have linked to violent media.
By
Joanna Anderson
| March 7, 2013, 4:50 p.m.
The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed legislation Thursday to crack down on gun traffickers, casting the first congressional vote to tighten gun laws following the December mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.
